Good Luck Predicting SEC Basketball This Year

Well that was unexpected.

The opening weekend of SEC play saw two huge upsets. Kentucky falling on the road to Alabama is a surprise but understandable. Florida blowing a 14 point lead at home to South Carolina is downright baffling. We also saw a 46-point blowout and two more road teams coming out on top. It was only one day in SEC play, two of the top teams in the conference haven’t even played yet, but it’s already clear the conference is going to have a strange year.

Arkansas 73 - Texas A&M 71

We already recapped it here, so there won’t be too much more to say. Arkansas escaped with a win they needed to have. Some clutch rebounding overcame poor shooting both at the three point line and the free throw line. Thank goodness Mason Jones got hot at the right time for the Hogs.

Georgia 50 - Tennessee 96

Is it possible to say a 46 point blowout wasn’t as close as the score makes it seem? Georgia made just one 3-pointer out of 20 attempts, got out rebounded by 15, and was down nearly 30 points at the half.

Kentucky 75 - Alabama 77

All five starters for the Tide scored double figures and Tevin Mack hit six threes in the game. Scoring from multiple sources and getting hot from three is the recipe for pulling an upset in college basketball and the Tide got one early.

Oh and Avery was pumped.

South Carolina 71 - Florida 69

What the hell happened Florida?

Florida led 58-44 with 11 minutes remaining in the game and then everything fell apart for the Gators who should have had an easy win over the conference’s bottom team. Instead Chris Silva sealed off his defenders and got the game winning dunk with just a couple seconds remaining.

Ole Miss 81 - Vanderbilt 71

A career high 31 from Breein Tyree led the Rebels to a road win and an 11-2 record. Simisola Shittu put in a good 21 point, nine rebound performance, but the Commodores got little outside shooting from elsewhere.